1. Field of the Invention
The invention refers to a charged internal combustion engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Internal combustion engines with turbochargers, as commonly known, use the energy contained in the exhaust and convert it into mechanical energy in an exhaust turbine to power a turbo compressor, which increases the pressure of the air supplied to the internal combustion engine. To accomplish this, turbocharging can occur in one or more steps.
In DE 198 37 978 A1, a two step turbocharging is disclosed, where at least two turbines are attached in the exhaust section, each of which power a turbo compressor. The exhaust turbines are connected in series as high and low pressure level. First, the exhaust flows through the high pressure turbine and then through the low pressure turbine. The charge air is first compressed by the low pressure compressor and then by the high pressure compressor and, in certain cases after cooling by passing through a heat exchanger, is supplied to the fresh gas side of the internal combustion engine. As the RPM of the internal combustion engine is increased, compression is increasingly shifted towards a single stage which occurs exclusively in the low pressure compressor. In comparison to one-step compression, charging is already possible at low engine speeds with such a two-step charging process, but the turbine operation, and therefore indirectly the compressor operation, is limited by the energy contained in the exhaust. That means that the unburned gas conducted into the internal combustion engine can only be compressed a little, especially with lower speeds. Without boost the internal combustion engine creates weak torque, which leads to poor acceleration when used in a motor vehicle.